Residents of the former hotel which inspired Cluedo say that a proposed heritage information board would encourage visitors to invade their privacy.
Rottingdean Heritage has amended its plans to erect an information board close to the former Tudor Close Hotel on Dean Court Road which inspired the inventors of the family game in the 20th century.
The information board celebrates the birthplace of the murder mystery game in Tudor Close as well as the mock Tudor building style popular in the area during the 1930s.
The amended text for the information board, to be located near St Margaret’s Church, states that the seven homes in Tudor Close are private property and that there is no access to the public, after residents objected to the original plans.
Residents of Tudor Close said in comments on another planning application for the information board (BH2024/00112), now withdrawn, that it would invite curious visitors to trespass on the private property.
One public comment says: “We already have a tourist problem in which we get a constant stream of tourists ignoring the privacy signs.
“They come into the close, walk around with their dogs, bikes and children, walk on our patios, treating our private residency like a public park.
“They invade our privacy, compromise our security, and damage our property, our grass, our heritage urn and delicate listed oak door.
“We can not gate off our forecourt, as suggested, for its Grade II listed and it needs to be open due to the daily stream of deliveries, tradesmen, and guests that need access to it during the day.
“The forecourt services seven homes and has eleven garages so the daily traffic is ever flowing. A closed gate is impossible.
“No other heritage plinth in the village draws attention, as this proposed one does, to a private residency.”
The previous planning application was withdrawn on 15 March, 2024, after residents made comments objecting to the board. The current application (BH2024/00113), which was submitted at the same time but is now amended, has no public comments.
The board would sit no higher than 1 metre on a plinth which is to be installed on the grass curb of pavement, near St Margaret’s Church.
Other public comments complain that residents were not contacted about the proposal prior to the plans being submitted.
Another public objection left on the planning application from January said: “I did not move to Tudor Close to live in a theme park, I came here for peace and tranquillity and the quiet seclusion that this particular layout offers.
“We are already infested with enough tourists milling around in the warmer months, thank you.
“We don’t want even more, ambling in, ice cream in hand, to stare into our windows, wandering over our lawn and letting their kids and pets run around, shouting and yelling.
“Nobody that lives in Tudor Close was contacted about this plinth, that hopes to shepherd tourists through our gate.
“No one here was asked if it’s what they want.
“Not a single soul from Heritage has enquired of us ‘Would you like even more human traffic tramping over your lawn, blankly walking through a frail wooden gate, clearly marked PRIVATE?'”
Originally a small 1920’s development of seven cottages by Charles Neville, the hotel reverted to individual houses after it closed.
Rottingdean Heritage were contacted for comment.
Who can blame them? It’s a private courtyard for residents only so how are the tourists supposed to gain access to visit the monument without trespassing on private property? A far more curious village story is why the vicar is installing a wet room in the 13th Century Grade II* Listed church next door. No homeless, no lepers, no sumo wrestlers, no disabled parking. Who could it be for and why has he sold one church property with another in his sights to fund this architectural vandalism which also involves protected war grave exhumation? Not a shower cubicle for one but a wet room! A Peter James thriller in the making?